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snowball

 - 4 dictionary results
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snow⋅ball

  [snoh-bawl]
Use snowball in a Sentence
–noun
1. a ball of snow pressed or rolled together, as for throwing.
2. any of several shrubs belonging to the genus Viburnum, of the honeysuckle family, having large clusters of white, sterile flowers.
3. a confection of crushed ice, usually in the shape of a ball, which is flavored with fruit or other syrup and served in a paper cup.
4. a scoop or ball of ice cream covered with shredded coconut and usually chocolate sauce.
–verb (used with object)
5. to throw snowballs at.
6. to cause to grow or become larger, greater, more intense, etc., at an accelerating rate: to snowball a small business into a great enterprise.
–verb (used without object)
7. to grow or become larger, greater, more intense, etc., at an accelerating rate.
Origin:
1350–1400; ME (n.); see snow, ball 1
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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snow·ball   (snō'bôl')   
n.  

    1. A mass of soft, wet snow packed into a ball that can be thrown, as in play.

    2. Chiefly Southern U.S. A cup of crushed or shaved ice flavored with colored syrup.

  2. Any of several plants having rounded clusters of white flowers, as the guelder rose and certain species of the arrowwood.

v.   snow·balled, snow·ball·ing, snow·balls

v.   intr.

  1. To grow rapidly in significance, importance, or size: problems that snowballed by the hour.

  2. To throw snowballs.

v.   tr.

  1. To cause to grow or increase rapidly.

  2. To throw snowballs at.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Slang Dictionary
snowball

  1. in.
    to grow at an increasing rate. (As a snowball rolling down a hill might increase in size.) : Offers to help with money and prayers began to snowball, and we had to get volunteers to help answer the phones.

  2. Go to snow. :
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Word Origin & History

snowball  (n.)
c.1400, from snow (n.) + ball (n.). The verb meaning "to make snowballs" is from 1684; sense of "to throw snowballs at" (someone) is from 1850. Meaning "to increase rapidly" is attested from 1929, though the image of a snowball increasing in size as it rolls along had been used since at least 1613, and a noun sense of "a pyramid scheme" is attested from 1892. Snowball's chance (in hell) is first recorded 1934.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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